Sterilizing Baby Toys
Squeaky clean!
Ever since Saioa has been old enough to grab things and put them in her mouth, I’ve been a little concerned with how often I should be sterilizing her baby toys. She drops them about a hundred times a day and when I think about all that treads our carpets… shoes, dog paws… and the places those shoes and dog paws have been….I start to get a little grossed out.
I’m not a psycho germaphobe that has to sanitize every five minutes but I do wonder how often I should be sterilizing those baby toys that she likes to explore by putting in her mouth.
Another thing I wondered about was how to sterilize. When Serophina was a baby I used to just wash them with warm, soapy water and then try to keep them away from her so they could stay clean for at least a half a day. Now, for some reason, that seems like a project that I don’t have time for.
One day I asked Serophina’s preschool teacher how they clean their toys and she said for daily use, the best thing to do is wipe her toys down with Clorox wipes and let air-dry. For thorough cleaning, I could drown them in a bleach water solution and then rinse.
I haven’t done the bleach cleaning yet but now that flu season is here I might be doing that more regularly. I hate the idea of using chemicals on baby toys but I keep hearing that it’s perfectly safe when diluted in plenty of water.
Do you think it’s necessary to sterilize baby toys? If so, how do you do it
Yes I think it is a good idea. I feel the same way about the carpet and shoes and dog feet that are all over it and then Owen is sitting there playing with toys on the floor. I’ve tried to make a shoe free zone at his play area and put at blanket down on the floor. While I try to keep the toys on the blanket, that never happens and I end up doing a soapy water cleaning of toys once a week or so. We do the bleaching about once a month. I love the wipes, especially for the electrical toys that I can’t get wet and for the super saucer.